


the wrong son

by Archadian_Skies



Series: the heat that drives the light [9]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Drug Use, Established Relationship, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Leo Manfred Redemption, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Past Drug Addiction, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24016738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: He turns 29 in Elijah Kamski’s bed and that in itself shouldn’t be an odd occurrence considering they’ve been A Thing since November last year, when the world changed.What’s really odd about the whole thing is how he got here because no ordinary deadbeat (albeit recovering) junkie should expect to be kidnapped off the streets, right?For the prompt: Leo/Kamski: Things you did to try to make everything all right.
Relationships: Elijah Kamski/Leo Manfred, Leo Manfred & Markus
Series: the heat that drives the light [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1372804
Comments: 13
Kudos: 71





	the wrong son

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Indig0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indig0/gifts).



He turns 29 in Elijah Kamski’s bed and that in itself shouldn’t be an odd occurrence considering they’ve been A Thing since November last year, when the world changed. What’s odd about the whole thing is why he’s here and not at a hospital but that’s what happens when you’re dating the trillionaire inventor of androids- he gets to make decisions and has too much money and power for anyone to tell him no. 

Actually no, what’s _really_ odd about the whole thing is _how_ he got here because no ordinary deadbeat (albeit recovering) junkie should expect to be kidnapped off the streets, right? 

Well that’s what happened, he’d left his therapy session and decided syrupy caffeine was the way to go and maybe even a cookie or two with it even though they’d pale woefully in comparison to Simon’s cookies. He’d been innocently on his way to Starbucks and then there was a sharp pain in his neck and then he woke up in some trashy warehouse reminiscent of his junkie days tied to a chair, with an android sneering at him.

He didn’t even know the guy but the guy apparently had beef with _Carl_ of all people and that’s when Leo started to laugh because??? Trying to get through Carl via his least favourite son??? Hilarious. He’d earned a backhand for his laughter but it was worth it. The guy loved to monologue and apparently his name was Sean, the AP700 who replaced Markus when Markus, y’know, was shot for giving Leo a well-deserved concussion, was tossed out into a scrapyard and came back from the dead like Robo-Jesus to lead his people like Robo-Moses.

Apparently the part Sean was unhappy with was how he was replaced by a PL600 of all models, an obsolete malfunctioning PL600 and that’s when Leo gets angry because how fucking dare someone refer to _Simon_ , literal founding member of the Jericho Four, as _malfunctioning_? Leo had spat in his face and earned another backhand and boy was it worth it too. 

Sean had a chip on his shoulder because Carl chose Simon over him but what really happened, as Leo tried to tell him several times, was that Markus urged him to visit his recovering friend and Simon graciously stepped up and offered to look after Carl. Carl never chose Simon, Simon offered to fill a gap of Sean’s own doing and then stayed on and y’know, the whole overthrowing CyberLife thing happened the same time the falling in love with Markus thing happened. No one’s fault.

And he’d told Sean, also several times actually, that he’d kidnapped the wrong son. If he _truly_ wanted to hurt Carl, he should’ve gone after Markus. Or even Simon. Yeah, actually, if Sean went after Simon there’d be another android revolution and he’d even pitch in because no one hurts Simon, _ever_. No one would come for Leo Manfred because he’s the expendable, forgotten son. Okay sure they’ve spent the last few months trying to build bridges burned before, but it’s been teeth-gritting difficult and awkward and at some points he’s sure his dad would rather set fire to the rickety bridge again. You’re wasting your time, he’d said and he saw the doubt starting to cross Sean’s face, saw the way he must have been questioning himself, did I get the wrong guy?

Leo remembers the cold, remembers the sun going down and it might be Spring but Detroit’s still behaving like it’s Winter and he’s not an android. He’s a sad sack of meat that unfortunately has a wrecked immune system directly caused by substance abuse, so yay go him this is literally his fault. Leo remembers how Sean had grown increasingly frustrated, and he tried to slip in more and more fuel to the fire of self-doubt in the hopes he’d let him go.

What happened in the end was that Sean decided letting him go would be too risky, Leo being a sad sack of meat and all and not an android who could be wiped of his memories, so Sean cooked up a batch of red ice large enough to get a whole room of junkies high and then he forced it into Leo, untied him from the chair and said if no one will miss you then you can die here the way they expect you to. Even though he’d been high off his face, that shit still had hurt and it hurt precisely because Sean was right.

Only he wasn’t because at some point there was a lot of sound, a lot of heavy footsteps and then he’s being picked up off the floor by The Terminator (yeah yeah he knows that’s Ronan Anderson, who by the way, he wishes Simon ended up with and not Markus because his android brother is insufferably perfect and the RK900 is so much cooler).

“You are the only Manfred I can tolerate,” Ronan had growled in that deep British voice of his (so cool), “so you cannot die until the other two have died.” And then Connor was there and he managed to garble out ‘Sean’ and Connor had taken off like a greyhound and then he was being carried (why did he never grow taller than 5’7” it’s _humiliating_ ) and loaded up into an ambulance.

Markus and Elijah had been in the ambulance. He thinks he remembers trying to say things to them but he can’t remember what. He does remember giggling and crying through it all because they probably think he did this to himself, just like Sean said. They probably think he snuck out to some warehouse to get high again, as if he’d willingly undo months of hard work just like that. He doesn’t blame them, he’d think that of himself too if it weren’t for his therapist.

He doesn’t remember what happens next, only that he wakes up in Elijah Kamski’s bed on his birthday, with his mouth tasting like vomit and his head pounding and the crook of his elbow really sore from the needle slotted into it. 

“Ah, you’re awake.” There’s an android looking over him, one he does recognise as the android surgeon who gave Eli his robo-arm and the same one who looked after Markus and Connor and Ronan when they temporarily became smols. “Drink this, slowly.” Had cold water ever tasted this good? “Alright. I’ll go fetch Elijah.”

And there he is, Elijah Kamski in all his 6’2” glory with a messy bun and thick rimmed glasses and his favourite hoodie. 

“Hey.”

“How are you feeling?” He crosses the room and sits on the side of his ginormous bed and he’s holding Leo’s hand like it’s made of glass. 

“Um. Like shit?”

“Overdose and pneumonia can do that to you, yes.” Eli says matter of factly, cocking a brow.

“I um,” oh shit is he going to cry? “I didn’t overdose myself.”

“Obviously.” Eli frowns, looking slightly offended.

“Wait what do you mean obviously?” He manages to croak out, a bit too stunned to continue feeling shameful.

“You obviously wouldn’t do that.” He digs in his pocket and pulls out the 90 day chip he’d given him last month. “I know you wouldn’t.” 

“Oh.” Oh shit he’s crying. “Oh um-”

“They caught Sean and arrested him. He will be dealt with.” 

“That makes it sound like he’s going to be executed.”

“Sadly I can’t make that ruling.” Eli says lightly, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead before pressing another one to his knuckles. “I’m glad we found you in time. And I’m sorry this is a lousy way to spend your birthday.”

“I mean, I did expect to wake up in your bed at some point today.” Leo tries to grin but all his muscles feel so sore and he’s still ugly crying. It does the trick though, because Eli laughs and the sound soothes him. “How did you find me?”

“You always either go straight home after therapy sessions, or get Starbucks. No matter what you choose, you’ll always send me a message.” Eli says and now that Leo thinks about it, yeah he does. “Sometimes Simon will let me know if you’ve had a particularly rough session so that I can call you. You didn’t come home, neither to my place nor yours by the time it got dark.”

“Yeah but...I could’ve just, y’know, been out taking photos or hanging out or-”

“You don’t take your camera to therapy sessions and your immune system means you don’t like being out in the cold after dark.”

“I could’ve been at a friend’s place, not out in the cold after dark.” He doesn’t know why he’s arguing. Actually he does know, and it’s because he’s still unconvinced that people cared enough to look for him, that people were worried enough to look for him. 

“Human visitors are logged by security at Jericho, and the only human visitor that day had been Detective Tina Chen.” Eli shakes his head. “Your human friends all checked into social media without you, and your android friends were all accounted for at various locations also without you.”

“You checked?” God why can’t he stop crying?

“Of course I checked.” Eli looks offended again. “Why wouldn’t I check? I was worried.”

There it is. Those three words. The three words Leo has longed to hear, right up there with those five precious words (I’m so proud of you) Simon said last year. Forget ‘I love you’, Leo doesn’t need to hear that (he wouldn’t mind it though). _I was worried._ He wishes he were an android and could just somehow save that memory and play it on loop and he’s still crying even as Eli carefully leans down to hug him. 

“You mean the world to me, Leo.” Eli murmurs, squeezing him close. “Of course I was worried when you vanished.”

“Thank you.” He sobs into his shoulder, clinging to him like the lifeline he is. “Thank you I’m sorry I made you worried, I’m so sorry.”

“None of it was your fault.” Eli says sternly before carefully easing him to lie back down. “You need to get some rest.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve been doing nothing but resting.”

“As someone once wisely pointed out.” Eli sighs dramatically as he tucks the covers up to his chin. “Being made unconscious is not the same as resting.”

Ah okay so those words have come back to bite him in the ass. Leo huffs and Eli smiles, leaning down to kiss his brow again. “You’re on fairly heavy medication, Leo. We’ll wake you when you need your next dose and something to eat.”

“Do I get cake?” He sniffles, rubbing his eyes and feeling all of about 9 instead of 29. “It’s my birthday.”

“Simon spent all night baking you a cake.” Eli reassures and fuck Leo’s about to start crying all over again. “Your family will be visiting tonight for a little celebration.”

“Hey um-” He grabs his sleeve before he can leave. “Hey...I-”

His boyfriend looks at him patiently and Leo feels like he’s falling apart but there’s a net to catch all the pieces and his heart aches as he realises Eli’s that net for him. 

“Thanks. I really, _really_ mean it.”

“Believe me when I say you mean a lot, to a lot of people, Leo.” He says, feather-soft and tender and Leo lets himself fall apart and be caught safely in his net. “Let us worry about you, hm? You’re worth the worry.”

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm still on this hellsite](https://archadianskies.tumblr.com/).


End file.
